Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-06-18
TO-DAY'S DISORDER
THE GAME OF "BEGGAR MY
NElGHBOR."
Doubt and observation-disclosures Of
Prosperity and Want New Con.
diti0ns Created-Thc So.
cialistic Idea - To.
Morrow.

The organized rational system of
society which Social-Democrats seek
to bring about will at least have one
great advantage over the present an
archical regime from which not only
the workers but the idlers of to-day
also will derive much benefit. To-
day everyone, be he laborcr or plum
derer, feels keen'y the insecurity of
his position, To-day the workman
may be in steady and remuncrative
employment, tomorrow he may be II
tramp, seeking shelter in the cheap
lodging house or the casual ward.
The manufacturer, the speculator,
the banker, may to-day be living in
the most luxurious manner and to-
morrow, through excessive compcti-
ton, new invention, or an unlucky
Investment or a commercial panic,
they may be sleeping under the same
roof as the unemployed workman.
1t is madness on the part of any man,
whether he belongs to the class who
rob or the class who are robbed, to
treat with Indifference the great so
cial question which calls 50 loudly
for settlement.
Every day those active, persistent
revolutionaries who invent new ma
chincry, new methods Of employing
force, new and more expeditions
ways of producing commodities, IN
troduce some novelty which throws
a certain number of the workers out
of employment and increases the in
tensity Of the struggle for gain be-
tween the members of the capitalist
class. One day last week, for in
stance, | found an article in one of
the evening papers dealing with new
methods Of distributing power which,
| it is said, are likely to change the
conditions under which the mechan-
ical industries are carried on by in
creasing the number of small work
shops and decreasing the number of
large factories. On another day
noticed paragraph stating that the
Niagara Falls are to be utilized for
the Lighting by electricity of the city
of Buffalo. And so on, day after
| day, innovations are made which are
constantly changing the conditions
under which industry is carried on,
revolutionizing the production of
wealth, while nothing is being done
to revolutlonize its distribution
Labor saving machinery, greater
subdivision of labor, improved meth
DDS of production are as rapidly as
possible brought into use by the
competing capitalists. Workmen
are discharged whenever possible
without the slightest regard for their
future: like any other superseded
machines that are cast on one side
as no longer Of any use. The wages
of those who remain are reduced un-
til they cannot buy bread and GER
tainlv cannot purchase those re-
Quisites to their comfort which they
50 greatly need and with which the
warehouses of their masters are filled.
And in the meantime these wise
masters are saying to themselves
"Dear the, how bad trade is, where
are our customers" and more would,
be customers are discharged bccaus,
others have not the whcrewithal tC
buy. Next the wives and sisters OF
the workers are forced on to the
wage-save market and become ma.
chine tenders, driving their hus
bands. fathers, brothers, from THEN
work, and eventually having to pro
vide food for them themselves on in.
fnitely less wages than the husband
father or brother had formerl,
secured. Then the children ar,
brought in to supplant their parents
and then another machine is in
troduced which sweeps them al
before it, makes the child beggal
or thief, turns the girl into a pros
tltute and separates the husband anC